Qualitative Research

DESCRIPTION: “While heated arguments between practitioners of qualitative and quantitative research have begun to test the very integrity of the social sciences, Gary King, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba have produced a farsighted and timely book that promises to sharpen and strengthen a wide range of research performed in this field. These leading scholars, each representing diverse academic traditions, have developed a unified approach to valid descriptive and causal inference in qualitative research, where numerical measurement is either impossible or undesirable. Their book demonstrates that the same logic of inference underlies both good quantitative and good qualitative research designs, and their approach applies equally to each.”

REVIEW EXCERPT:  “The book does present a standard set of statistical concepts for quantitative research, but it fails in its goal to extend those to qualitative research. I cannot recommend it either as an original monograph or as a text for a course in social science methodology.”

Alford, R. (1995). DESIGNING SOCIAL INQUIRY - SCIENTIFIC INFERENCE IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH - KING,G, KEOHANE,RO, VERBA,S. Contemporary Sociology-A Journal Of Reviews, 24(3), 424-427.

“The book exploits the metaphor of researcher-as-statistician to develop guidelines for undertaking social scientific research that are allegedly applicable to all empirical investigations. King et al.'s approach has sharp and frequently unflattering implications for case studies and similar research strategies. Their statistical worldview is unable to make sense of important elements of case study research or of the importance that is sometimes attached to the results of a single case, thus their argument appears to cast doubt on the wisdom of generating or using such studies.”

Mckeown, T. (1999). Designing social inquiry: Scientific inference in qualitative research. International Organization, 53(1), 161.

“All in all, we find this book interesting and provocative, a serious attempt to unity two antagonistic traditions in political science.”

Raknerud, A., & Knutsen, J. (1995). DESIGNING SOCIAL INQUIRY - KING,G, KEOHANE,RO, VERBA,S. Journal Of Peace Research, 32(4), 496.

DESCRIPTION: “Digital Tools for Qualitative Research shows how the research process in its entirety can be supported by technology tools in ways that can save time and add robustness and depth to qualitative work. It addresses the use of a variety of tools (many of which may already be familiar to you) to support every phase of the research process, providing practical case studies taken from real world research.”

REVIEW EXCERPT: “This text begins with a rationale for using digital tools in qualitative research and background on engaging in reflexive practice and making ethical choices. It then outlines guidelines for collaborating and managing projects, reviewing the literature, generating data, transcribing audio and video data, and analyzing textual data, images, audio, and video. Final chapters cover writing and representing findings. Learning features include real-life vignettes, cases, and reflection questions, along with b&w screenshots, illustrations, process diagrams, and summary charts.”

Digital Tools for Qualitative Research. (2014). ProtoView, 1(6-14), ProtoView, Vol.1(6-14).

DESCRIPTION: “This extensively revised edition of Focus Groups as Qualitative Research reflects the many changes that have occurred in the study of focus groups in recent years.”

DESCRIPTION: “In the second edition, leading qualitative researcher Sally Thorne retains the clear, straightforward guidance for researchers and students in health, social service, mental health, and related fields. This new edition includes additional material on knowledge synthesis and integration, evidence-based practice, and data analysis. In addition, this book…takes the reader through the qualitative research process, from research design through fieldwork, analysis, interpretation, and application of the results; provides numerous examples from a variety of applied fields to show research in action; uses an accessible style…”

REVIEW EXCERPT: “This book is a guide to learning how to use interpretive description methodology….It follows the format of a well-established genre of methodological manuals designed to guide new researchers in the conduct of qualitative inquiry.”

Hunt, M. (2011). Book Review: Sally Thorne Interpretive Description Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press 2008. 272 pp. $29.95. ISBN 978-1-59874-330-2. Qualitative Health Research, 21(2), 292-294.

DESCRIPTION: "This practical, user-friendly text takes the novice researcher through all of the steps of an interviewing project, beginning with picking a viable and absorbing topic, gaining the confience of interviewees, preparing questions, and the final analysis and write-up." "A core purpose of the book is building confidence in beginning researchers so they can begin to interview right away and experience the excitement of learning about others' lives and stories. Examples from the authors' own interviews and those of professional colleagues create an engaging first-hand feel. For more experienced researchers the book examines debates in the literature on what can be learned with what kind of certainty and the appropriate role of the author in the final text."--Jacket.

REVIEW EXCERPT:  “…How useful the book is likely to be as a methodological guide depends, to a large extent, on how strongly the reader accepts the Rubins’ qualitative model. The book discusses general considerations for interviewing and qualitative research such as formulating questions, selecting a sample, conducting the interview and analyzing the data. The context in which this information is presented, however, focuses very strongly on building relationships with interviewees and coming to understand intimately their world views. Researchers who are not strong proponents of the book’s qualitative philosophy may find, for example, that the discussion of the general considerations of interview structure in the context of a guided conversation is needlessly diffuse, difficult to follow and possibly of no relevance….The most likely audience for the work is beginning researchers who are interested in exploring avenues of qualitative research. The breezy style and anecdotal content may, in fact, make the work most suitable as a source for undergraduate methods courses.”

Snyder, H. (1996). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Library & Information Science Research, 18(2), 194-195.

DESCRIPTION: “Providing practical coverage of theory and its role in qualitative research, this book offers a concise definition of what a theoretical framework is and how one goes about finding one.”

REVIEW EXCERPT: “Finding that their graduate students seemed unsure about the role of theory in qualitative research, especially about the use of a theoretical framework, teachers and researchers in education present a guidebook. Some of the topics are liminality and the study of a changing academic landscape, a framework for understanding social workers at midlife, and a look through the Kubler-Ross theoretical lens.“

Theoretical frameworks in qualitative research. (2007). Reference and Research Book News, 22(1), N/a.

DESCRIPTION: “Written in an accessible style, this volume tackles the topics of beginning to write, continuing to write, editing and getting published. It is indispensable not only to qualitative researchers but to anyone engaged in social research for whom the link between conducting research and writing it up seems more like an obstacle than an opportunity.”

REVIEW EXCERPT: “Harry Wolcott provides qualitative researchers with suggestions on how to “write up” research results in a style that can be read easily. Specifically, Walcott focuses on ‘qualitative/descriptive research….’”

Anonymous. (1991). Book Notes -- Writing Up Qualitative Research by Harry F. Wolcott. Harvard Educational Review, 61(2), 238.